Managing The Dragon

The June edition of the HBS Alumni Bulletin focused on Harvard Business School (HBS) alumni operating in the global economy. As a 1973 graduate with a Master Degree in Business Administration (MBA), I was pleased to be one of those featured. Other featured alumni include Sunil Bharti Mittal (Owner/President Manager Program 27, 1999) who is [...]

Jackson Zhang and Gary Chan, officers of Rensselaer in China (RiC), which is part of the RPI Greater China Business Club, interviewed me last week on a wide range of topics regarding China. The following excerpts on competing in China were taken from that interview. RiC: You were a football player, a banker, and a [...]

For most of the last 20 years, my last stop at Chicago’s O’Hare airport before boarding the United flight to Beijing has been the bookstore where I would load up on reading for the long flight, as well as for my spare time in China. Today, of course, I just download several books on my [...]

With more and more companies from all parts of the world coming to China, the topic of doing business in China is as timely as ever. So, when CNN called and asked for my opinion, I was happy to oblige. The CNN segment, which came out last week, advised that new entrants to China keep [...]

I became an entrepreneur later in life than most, but I must have had the seeds of entrepreneurialism within me for some time. Once given encouragement, my entrepreneurial instincts took complete control. I didn’t start my first company until I was in my 40s, but once I went down that road, I never looked back. [...]

My friends from Tsinghua University ran a training program last week for Citi executives interested in doing business in China, and asked if I’d share some of my experiences with the group. The Citi execs were particularly interested in learning what it’s like to negotiate in China. In preparation for my talk, I came up [...]

In our last post, MTD discussed ways to establish a market position in China without committing capital. Although this is certainly possible, it is very difficult to gain serious traction in the Chinese marketplace by pursuing a purely export strategy, or by contract manufacturing and selling through sales agents. While a representative office is better [...]

As China becomes the largest market in the world for one product after another, companies with products, technologies and services needed by the country’s rapidly-developing economy are all trying to do the same thing — establish a position in the Chinese marketplace. Depending upon the human and capital resources available, there are a variety of [...]

As the dawn of the new century, a new technology promised to fundamentally change global economics. Government leaders in the United States and China, the two largest economies in the world, believed that companies from their respective countries should lead in the development of this new technology. By 2010, two national champions, one from each [...]

When China’s COFCO Corp. Chairman Frank Ning was named the 2009 Asia Business Leader last week in Singapore by CNBC Asia Pacific, he remarked that he was sure he received the award because he is from China. Given all that he has accomplished, Frank’s humility is admirable. Yet, there is an element of truth in [...]